Archives For technology

Farah Khan’s and Shahrukh Khan’s latest Happy New Year [Español] just hit the market officially with VOD… or as they’re calling it DTF (Direct to Fans), which is less technical and much more personal. It’s also way cheaper than regular VOD too, which usually charges $5USD per one-time stream or 4-5-day rental. You basically get to download the movie for that price. I’m just supposing it’s subtitled (being aimed at all markets except India and China), but I could be supposing erroneously [1].

happy-new-year-vod-dtf

No cons, just pros really. It would have been much cooler and much more trailblazing if this had happened on opening week (or the week later), but it’s something. I’m just hoping UTV (EROSNOW had its one moment with the pretty horrible Lekar Hum Deewana Dil) gets their shit together with the distribution of films like Haider and PK, really because those two are my bias at the moment. Imagine if more European and other big Asian movies did the same. Isn’t THAT what they want? Piece of the Hollywood pie? You need to indoctrinate people first, get them on the habit of watching you. Hollywood’s been doing this to us for the past 70 years.

Here’s the link.

I never thought that I would actually, you know, really like a Hatsune Miku song. I had listened to a couple livetune tracks, but left them at bay until I saw Takashi Murakami’s Jellyfish Eyes where he used the song Last Night, Good Night to great effects during the ending credits. It was around 3-4am, so the effects of the song was perfect.

Too bad the only version available on my iTunes is the one done with Pharrell to promote the movie somehow, and nothing prior to 2012 is on.

On the topic of Miku, such a hybrid. I don’t know what to tag this post.

There’s a very cool video of the fireworks show in West Palm Beach FL. that was shot using a drone. Some of the shots would’ve looked really awesome in 3D, and the clip would’ve been more awesome if YouTube had let the uploader use the original audio track, which seems to have been set to Andrea Bocelli’s Con Te Partiro [clip].

So I went to one of them websites that mishes and mashes clips together. Make sure you watch the fireworks in HD ;)

Solar Roadways

May 21, 2014 — Leave a comment

Well, this is an exciting project~

solar-roadways

Solar panels on the road!

My first reaction to it was, of course, to wonder whether that would be sustainable and durable. Cars (and trucks!) driving by solar panels every single time? That’s apparently the first thing in people’s minds, so they’ve assured us “Solar Roadways is a modular paving system of solar panels that can withstand the heaviest of trucks (250,000 pounds).

And things get even more exciting~

They have many other features as well, including: heating elements to stay snow/ice free, LEDs to make road lines and signage, and attached Cable Corridor to store and treat stormwater and provide a “home” for power and data cables. EVs will be able to charge with energy from the sun (instead of fossil fuels) from parking lots and driveways and after a roadway system is in place, mutual induction technology will allow for charging while driving.

It’s basically a giant led screen -that charges itself- on the floor for signage (no more painting and paving!) and heating for snow and ice! I wonder how it does with floods and scorching heat, though. Imagine the system going down after a massive rain or overflowing of a nearby river… tropical storm or tsunami. Or the overheating of the floor, ending up in flames or melted shoes (or tires).

Did I ever tell you about the time that my sneakers melted when I was doing sandboard?

Still… imagine the possibilities if done right.

I’ve been binging on Madhuri Dixit clips once again because it’s her birthday! I’ve been watching her clips from Devdas multiple times just tonight- I think this is the first time I decided to search for the clips in the best resolution possible. This is the first time I catch the EROSNOW 1080 clips, so I just noticed how cleaned up the image is- like, this is the first time I’m seeing the Devdas print without the orange tint. LOL

So… if EROS has the cleaned up print in high resolution~~~ why the heck aren’t they’re releasing it on Bluray already? I’ve only seen the film once, but it looks odd without the weird coloring… like they cleaned it up and color corrected it wrong. xD Anyway, I’ve settled for a lot of Hindi DVDs already — the YRF DVDs are particularly decent — but I won’t settle for less from Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Being able to just stream the movie is not enough either!

Because look at her! She owns it, and you sorta wish SRK wasn’t overacting so much in it because he’s ruining my mood in here. And I’ve learned to love SRK, but come on!

With that song~ Maar Dala~

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AX1ro0AJk_I

How can I not add the pretty of that to my collection? PLEASE!

Don’t make me do questionable things for high resolution video!

I’m still not sold on Netflix- never to this date I’ve ran into a film that I wanted to watch on it. At least in terms of this region, which doesn’t count with as much content as the US or Canada one. Similar issues with iTunes… and Amazon is out of the question.

I used to subscribe to MUBI for a long while (at least for a bit over a year), but eventually turned off my subscription because I wasn’t watching anything, while things I had added to my watchlist stopped being available, and the selection of their films eventually was reduced to their now curated content. I’m only subscribed to EROSNOW now, and have seen a few couple of films there, but had to turn to other mediums when found links that were region-restricted or surprisingly without subtitles.

My experience with streaming has been decent- and for as cheap as $5-9 bucks you can watch a lot in a month, and it just makes your life quite easy. Similar flawless experience with my first Vimeo On Demand watch. Thanks Joss Whedon for the heads up, and actually putting the film up there right after its premiere. To top it all off, subtitles in Spanish, German, French, Portuguese and Japanese (plus English CC) were available making it the smoothest watch if you decided to watch it with any bunch of people.

Paying $5 to stream a new movie can seem like the best way possible to make it look as if you’re going to the cinema. It takes me back to those days where I would watch 2 or 3 new movies a weekend. If studios ever decided to really go off their way to online distribute their new movies almost simultaneously, I’d be willing.

Here’s In Your Eyes.

Apparently Vimeo streaming is not as smooth (or at all) if you don’t have a Vimeo account, though. Take it as a good chance to get one, or don’t complain. I really don’t know any other streaming (paying) website that would let you use their content without an account. You need one in iTunes, in Amazon, in Netflix, HBO, et all. So please, people, stop complaining about THAT.

Spanish (more serious) related note.

I can see it now, can you? A step closer to attaining Power Rangers communicators! Next step- teleportation! It feels like technology is advancing a million miles a minute. The watch thing, though, it does seem to be a nudge to Samsung’s latest, no?

Combine Samsung’s flexible screens with this functionality, and you’ve got something.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrqZl2QIz0c

Here’s another video.

fiftythree-pencil-think-with-your-hands

This is a thing of beauty. Too bad I don’t use iPads… and I don’t know any of my friends who use them, except for my aunties. And for a possible new option, I was looking at the Nokia phones, but someone told me Samsung’s are resilient. Survived a massive rain, they said. Not that it rains much down here.

FiftyThree has designed this stylus pencil [that comes in walnut and graphite] that is actually pretty cheap. Between the prices of $60-$50 USD. It’s good for sketching, outlining, writing, coloring and blending- it does seem to do basically the same as a Galaxy Note, which my cousin (and a friend) loves to use, but I guess the iPad gives you greater space to work. Plus, I suppose the stylus would be more sensitive, or am I wrong?

Check out the video.

On Online Mind Maps

November 2, 2013 — 1 Comment

I haven’t worked with mind maps since my school days were over. I remember I used to work with FreeMind, but it’s been so long since then that I wondered whether there were any good web-based mind-mapping applications around today. I found two slightly different ones that I tested working on a mind map of my Indian Movie-watching Journey [1].

First, there was MindMeister, which worked the most similar to FreeMind. The free version seems to be bare, it doesn’t allow you to save styles (for formatting) or setup your share options — smart~ — it just goes from ‘private’ to ‘public’ … or you have to invite people, which should work for most. But it works and it lets you save your work, export in different sizes and formats, so it’s all good.

indian-movie-journey-jul-nov-2013

Continue Reading…

3D printers keep popping up in news. This time around with Yahoo! Japan developing a fancy module that includes a 3D printer that fuses the visual experience of searching for information with the tactile results of 3D printing for children who have sight impediments.

It’s called Hands on Search (さわれる検索), also read as Sawareru Kensaku.

More info on the Sawareru website.